SOLO PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP WITH W. KAMAU BELL
Sign up for classes through Brown Paper Tickets and receive one hour
of free consultation w/Kamau Bell.

ABOUT THE CLASS:
This 8 session course is designed to develop 15-20 minute
professional level solo theater pieces using a variety of writing and
performance techniques. Each student will create a unique and
personal performance piece that will culminate in a public
performance at the end of the course. The class is recommended for
performers of all disciplines, including actors, writers, comedians,
spoken word artists, musicians and dancers. People of all levels of
experience are welcome, from those who have never been on stage
before to those preparing a piece for a professional production or
audition.

ABOUT THE TEACHER:
W. Kamau Bell has been a Bay Area comedian, writer, and director for
more than ten years. Kamau is a favorite at Cobbs Comedy Club, The
Punch Line, The Porchlight Storytelling Series, and is half of Siskel
& Negro on Live 105. Kamau has appeared at The Just For Laughs
Festival in Montreal, on Comedy Centrals Premium Blend, and Byron
Allens Comics Unleashed. He is also featured in The Soft Skull Press
publication What Would Bill Hicks Say? Kamau has been profiled in The
San Francisco Chronicle on three separate occasions, including not
ironically during Black History Month. Goldstar Events said that
Kamau is "without a doubt among San Francisco's most thoughtful and
innovative comics". The SF Weekly called him smart, stylish, and very
much in the mold of politically outspoken comedians like Dave
Chappelle and Margaret Cho, although he was more excited that they
called him handsome. However Kamau is most proud of being the leader
of The Solo Performance Workshop.

DATES:
From January 13 - March 9 (no class Feb 3)
Beginning/Intermediate Class: 10:00--1:00
Advanced Class: 2:00--6:00

LOCATION:
The Phoenix Theatre
414 Mason Street @ Geary
6th Floor
San Francisco

TO REGISTER:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/25844

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Bruce Pachtman
415-826-1709

NOTE: Participants must be at least 18 years old.


PRESS:
The San Francisco Chronicle's 96 Hours Section.

SoloHouse: Monthly event features rotating cast in one-person shows

The world of stand-up comedy is brutal. The fight to make an audience
laugh, and then keep people roaring, means getting onstage nightly to
try out material and hone the act.

And W. Kamau Bell, a comic who's been on Comedy Central and who is a
frequent opener for Dave Chappelle, loves stand-up. But a few years
ago, friend and solo performer Bruce Pachtman ("Don't Make Me Look
Too Psychotic") asked him for advice on his show. Their discussions
eventually gave Bell a director's credit on the production, and
through Pachtman he began teaching solo-performance classes at the
Shelton Theater.

Beginning Sunday, Bell will host and direct SoloHouse, a monthly
night of solo performance work, with Enzo Lombard ("Love, Humiliation
and Karaoke"). It will have a rotating cast - this time, it'll be
Leslie Beam ("Mis-matches.com"), Bucky Sinister (comic, spoken-word
specialist), Ericka Lutz (editor of "Literary Mama" and blogger of
"Red Diaper Dharma") and Thao Nguyen (master's degree holder in
public health from UC Berkeley). Performers will be onstage about 15
minutes at a time.

"The thing with stand-up is that the onus is always on entertainment
value, and that is judged on solely by laughs," Bell says. "And then
solo performance backed away so much from entertaining that it tends
to be focused on venting or releasing personal demons on the audience.

"My thing is, you can do that, but it has to be entertaining," Bell
says, adding that solo performances can produce tears and laughs in
the same act.

Bell says his time is now split between stand-up and solo
performance. He postponed a move to New York to focus on solo
performance; he initiated SoloHouse, and has a solo show, "The W.
Kamau Bell Curve," beginning in October.

Bell sees solo performance as a wide-open field. "The thing that's
compelling to me about solo performance is what was great about stand-
up in the '70s - there are no rules. Stand-up now - don't get me
wrong, I still love it - there's a lot more rules," he says. "Richard
Pryor could get onstage and act and show what it's like to nod out on
heroin. That's not hilarious, but it's certainly interesting. Bill
Cosby could work by taking his time and painting slow character
pieces. Now you have to be funny every moment.

"In England they don't separate one-man shows from stand-up.
Ultimately, if we throw this all together, it's the same: a person on
a stage who's trying to entertain, with just their mouth and their
words."

- Reyhan Harmanci
Thursday, August 30, 2007